


time curious time, gave me no compasses, gave me no signs

by SimplyStardust



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, F/M, Misunderstandings, Mutual Pining, No beta we die like Jack, Unhappy Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-20
Updated: 2020-10-20
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:35:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27116894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SimplyStardust/pseuds/SimplyStardust
Summary: In a world where the first words you say to your soulmate are on their skin, time travel makes things… complicated.(Title from Taylor Swift's invisible string)
Relationships: Ninth Doctor/Rose Tyler, Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler
Comments: 6
Kudos: 76
Collections: That's My Soul Mate





	time curious time, gave me no compasses, gave me no signs

The Doctor had always been worried about his soulmark.

It was very alarming to look at the nape of his skull and see the words “ **you pulled his arm off** ”, especially while growing up in the stuffy, uptight culture of Gallifrey. It was always there, regardless of regeneration.

He was worried for the situation he and his soulmate would find themselves in and what sort of man he would become. He didn’t like the idea of being a practitioner of dismemberment.

By the time he was fighting in the time war, all thoughts of soulmates and pulled off arms were pushed to the side and eventually forgotten. That was until he was standing in a department store lift with a shocked shopgirl holding the arm of an auton.

“ **You pulled his arm off** ”, said the girl.

“Yep, plastic.”

The Doctor quickly glanced at her. She was pretty, blonde and had her soulmark on her collarbone.

Oh.

Her soulmark was not the “ **run** ”, he told her, but instead it was a “ **yeah** ”. The Doctor had gone through the feelings of confusion, elation and crushing disappointment in three seconds flat.

One sided soulmates were uncommon but not impossible. They usually happened when someone was most compatible with someone else who was even more compatible with a third person. Figures with his luck that he’d be one of the few cases.

* * *

Rose Tyler hated her soulmark. It was so nondescript, a simple “ **yeah** ” on her collarbone. Clearly, her soulmate was a man of many words.

She was jealous of Mickey. His soulmark was recognizable, it even had a name! “ **Martha Jones, and I think you’re my soulmate** ” gave him plenty of information. He had it easy, when his soulmate said his words, he’d instantly know who they were. And unless his soulmate was a pathological liar, it was probably one Martha Jones.

Rose was… less lucky. She’s met hundreds of people whose first words to her were “ **yeah** ”. Cashiers, customers, even that one drunk man she saw in the alley.

When she was younger, she would ask any and everyone who said that to her if she was their soulmate. She stopped after meeting Jimmy Stone and never started again.

They were at a party. Rose had asked him if he was part of the band performing that night. He responded with a “ **yeah** ”. Rose immediately asked him if she had said his words. For some reason, (Rose didn’t know why; Alcohol? Drugs? Thought it would get him some? Just general assholery?) he lied and said yes.

When Rose asked if she could see the mark, he said it was somewhere he was uncomfortable showing her. Being young and naive, Rose ignored this red flag and didn’t push on it even weeks into their relationship.

When he finally came clean, it was… rough. She had already dropped out of school and left her mother. There was a lot of crying, screaming and cursing (mostly crying).

After that relationship, Rose had sort of given up on soulmates.

* * *

He had tried to push her away. He knew that falling in love with her would only end in pain and heartbreak when she would find her actual soulmate.

However the more he pushed her away, the closer they became. He had to catch up with Rose, which he learned was her name, in order to get a lead. And damn it, she was quick witted, joyful and oh so compassionate. She was everything he could ever wish for in a partner.

Which is why he tried so hard to get her to hate him. It would be easier that way, to not fall in love with her if she hated him. He was rude and tried to freak her out with his alienness. He insulted her, her loved ones and her species. But none of it worked! She stayed with him and when she swung in like a blonde Tarzan he swore for a moment he had passed and seen a higher power.

And that was why when she turned his offer down, he forced himself to turn around back into his Tardis. He had to stop these feelings now before they engulfed him entirely. If he removed himself from the source of his affections now, then maybe he could compartmentalize and ignore these emotions. However if he ever returned to Rose, he knew that he would reach the point of no return.

* * *

“By the way, did I mention it also travels in time?”

* * *

Rose was falling out of love with her soulmate.

Not that she’s ever met them. She felt kind of bad for whoever it was. It’s just that as she got to know the Doctor more and more, she found herself more in love with him than any hypothetical figure in her mind.

When she learned that his race had two hearts, she asked him if his race had soulmarks. He told her they didn’t, which prompted a mixture of emotions. It was reassuring to know that she had just an equal chance at his affections as any other conscious being, especially when they encountered “Reinette” and initially Sarah Jane Smith.

But it made her feel sad for the Doctor. The alien was already alone as the last of his species. The lack of a soulmate could only make this loneliness more acute.

* * *

Rose watched the ghostly hologram of the Doctor in front of her.

“Am I ever going to see you again?”, she asked.

“You can’t. But who knows, maybe that soulmate of yours is in this universe?”, he said, pained.

“I don’t want my damn soulmate. I want you! I love you!”, she cried out.

“Quite right, too. And I suppose, if it's one last chance to say it, Rose Tyler I-”

At that moment the connection cut out.

“-have a soulmark.”

* * *

The Doctor was devastated when the metacrisis neither had a soulmark nor said Rose’s words to her. But he’d be lying if a possessive part of him wasn’t at least a little happy.

Maybe his imminent death was karma for feeling that way. He had resolved all his affairs already, except for one. One he could never resolve.

Unless of course, he went further back into Rose’s timeline. But any sane and intelligent Time Lord would tell you that that was very dangerous messing with a messy timeline so entangled with your own. Good thing that the Doctor was never that sane anyways.

He trusted his Tardis to send him somewhere temporally stable. Just to watch of course, he wasn’t THAT crazy.

He gazed as Rose stood in the snowy road, when suddenly a wave of pain from the radiation caused him to painfully groan.

Rose heard him and turned around, seeing a man in shadow. Against her better judgement, she asked him “You all right, mate?”

Still gritting his teeth in pain, he absently responded with a “ **yeah** ”.

“Too much to drink?”

“Something like that.”

“Maybe it's time you went home.”

“Yeah”

“Anyway, Happy New Year.”

“And you. What year is this?”

“Blimey, how much have you had? 2005, January the first.”

“2005. Tell you what. I bet you're going to have a fantastic year.”

“Yeah? See you.”

As the pain grew even more intense, he began to stumble back to his Tardis before being stopped by the sight of Ood Sigma.


End file.
